Jalandhar ( ਜਲੰਧਰ ) known as Jullundur, is an ancient city in Jalandhar District in the state of Punjab, India. It has an urban population of almost a million, and another million live in the rural areas outside the city.

The city is well known for its production of traditional Indian Sweets, sports equipment, leather goods and rubber goods, and auto parts. Many major leather manufacturers are based there, the largest being Gee Kay International who supply a variety of leather products ranging from garments to tool bags around the world. Many major sports equipment manufacturers such as BAS, Bhaseen Sports (Baspo),Soccer International, Spartan and F.C. Sondhi are based there. In sports goods, some the world's best known equipment and products for football, cricket, and hockey are made in Jalandhar. Major sports giants such as Adidas, Reebok, Dunns, and Mitre outsource from Jalandhar. Current mayor is Rakesh Rathore

Jalandhar was a hub of green revolution of India in early 60s. Dr. Dilbag Singh Athwal, world renowned scientist in plant breeding, developed India's first high yield wheat KALYAN. The wheat he name afer his native village Kalyanpur 6 miles (9.7 km) southwest of city of Jalandhar. Later Dr. Athwal headed International Rice Research Institute, International Agricultural Development Service etc. Dr. Athwal took early retirement from his position as senior vice president Rockefeller Institute. The village Kalyanpur (now part of Jalandhar city) have produced prominent scientist including Dr. Raghbir Singh, Dr. Rajbir Kaur, Dr. Iqbal Singh Athwal.

Jalandhar is the world's biggest manufacturer of leather tool pouches and aprons with major American and European customers buying from factories in Jalandhar. \

Jalandhar being the NRI Belt and having large number of marriage palaces, Jalandhar has a huge consumption of fresh flowers, with world renowned florists like Meera Florist providing the service. Recently Ludhiana district have developed more marriage palaces, and have American based companies because being the second largest district of NRI residents the Ludhiana city is the hub of Punjab.

Jalandhar is also famous for its surgical tool industry. Jalandhar produces a large number of surgical tools. Big companies like Camlin outsource their production here. The city boasts of having the largest number of hospitals in Asia. A place called Basti Sheikh has many cottage projects which run without any help of the Punjab government.[citation needed]

Jalandhar also has the biggest printing industry in India. Major publishing and advertising companies like, MBD, Aay Bee advertisers have their main offices in Jalandhar.

Jalandhar is seeing an increasing growth of technology investment, with headquarters and operational centres from the likes of Dell and Microsoft being set up. Jalandhar is also the home of the headquarters of Kayako.

Jalandhar is famous for its sports industry, but very few know the name of Hindustan Hydraulics who pioneered the manufacturing of high-tech CNC machines for sheet metal industry. The company has its customers not only in India but in countries like Germany, Holland, USA who are better known for the manufacturing of machine tools around the world.

Jalandhar is also quite known for its electrical goods industry. Manufacturers like Standard Switchgears and Apex Electricals, located in Jalandhar, have been producing world-class electrical switchgears for over three decades.

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History

After the first Anglo-Sikh war, Maharaja Dalip Singh was compelled to cede a part of his territory which had earlier formed part of his empire. Article III of First Treaty of Lahore said, "Maharaja cedes to the Hon'able Company in perpetual sovereignty, all his forts, territories and rights in the Doab or Country, bill and plain, situated between the rivers Beas and Sutlej. Thus the whole of Jalandhar passed into the hands of the Britishers by the treaty of Lahore on March 9, 1846. Sir John Lawrence was made the first Commissioner of the ceded territory.

Bosworth Smith writes, "John Lawrence lost no time in buckling down to his work.. It was on March 1,1846 that he received his appointment from the Governor-General at Umritsar(Amritsar), and by the 30th of the same month the Governor-General was paying him a return visit at Jullundur, where he had already got well on with the most difficult task of the ruler of a newly annexed province, the settlement of its revenue."

To begin with the districts of (1)Jalandhar (2)Hoshiarpur (3)Ludhiana (4) Ferozepur and (5) Kangra constituted this Division. After the partition of India(especially Punjab) in 1947, Amritsar District and a greater part of Gurdaspur were transferred to India and these were added to Jalandhar Division.

In 1956, after the merger of PEPSU into Punjab, the District of Kapurthala was also added to Jalandhar Division. When the reorganisation of Punjab took place on 1st November,1966 and Himachal and Haryana were carved out as the new States, whole of Kangra, some parts of Hoshiarpur and Gurdaspur Districts went over to Himachal. Thus in 1973, District of Ludhiana was transferred to Patiala Division. Jalandhar Division was left with the existing five Districts namely Jalandhar, Kapurthala, Amritsar, Gurdaspur and Hoshiarpur.

Geography

Jalandhar is located at 31°20′N75°35′E﻿ / ﻿31.33°N 75.58°E﻿ / 31.33; 75.58 in Punjab. It has an average elevation of 229 metres (751 feet).

The city is located almost 375 km from Delhi, 150 km from Chandigarh and about 80 km from Amritsar. Jalandhar is named after Jalandhara, a demon king who lived in water as his name suggests Jal (water) and andhar (in). It was the capital of Punjab until 1953, when it was replaced by Chandigarh. During British occupation it was called Jullundur.